I like all kinds of books but like any reader, I have my own standards to pick what I call "the best" - i.e., what I like the best. One way to define that further is to call it a combination of style and substance.

If there is any voice appropriate for breaching the gulf between acceptable and fringe discussion of the UFO phenomenon, Richard Dolan’s is it. Impeccable research credentials as an academic, combined with straightforward, no-nonsense, no-punches-pulled prose, fit the bill for this most important task. Dolan never ventures past what the evidence portrays, often at the expense of a neat conclusion; yet neither does he shrink from laying out that evidence and pointing to its clear implications and probable reality, when warranted. At the heart of the issue is the “National Security State” - with its obvious attempts to control, manipulate, defuse, massage, subvert and misdirect the entire field of public knowledge and discussion about UFOs - while its ultimate agenda is still unknown. Collaboration with aliens? A breakaway space program with advanced, reverse-engineered technology? We can only speculate, still; but Dolan’s thorough examination of all the relevant issues and evidence at least put us in a good position if we take on our deserved right, the “need to know.”